The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Low temperature plasma technology has been employed to initiate, promote, control, and catalyze various complex behaviors and responses in biological systems. More importantly, low temperature plasma can be tuned to achieve the desired medical effect, especially in medical sterilization, dental restoration, wound healing, and treatment of skin diseases. However, current plasma generators are generally bulky, inflexible, and requires relatively high voltage to ignite the plasma, and the plasma flame or jet generated are too large and instable in size, which poses difficulties when indirectly delivering the plasma flame to a desired but hard to reach treatment site. Furthermore, current plasma devices are generally designed for generating plasma from a signal gas (carrier gas). When mixing gases is desired for an application, a premixed gas (carrier gas mixed with reactive gas) is generally used, which results unstable plasma flame. In situ mixing of a reactive gas into carrier gases at the ignite point has not been successfully attempted.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a new and improved device for controlled generation of plasma flames or jets with significantly reduced voltage. There is also a need to provide a new and improved device for targeted delivery of low temperature plasma to an intended surface, such as a dental surface inside a patient's mouth, or a surface of a particular wound site. There is also a need to provide a new and improved device for generating low temperature plasma with in-situ mixing of gases for desired operation stability.